Remember when you were a kid and “fundraising” meant something slightly traumatic like selling candy bars door-to-door, hawking coupon books no one wanted, or convincing the elderly that they needed another roll of overpriced gift wrap?
Thank goodness that fundraising has grown up. You don’t need uncomfortable sales pitches to raise money for your cause. With the right strategies (and a little help from WPForms 😉), you can create smooth, professional donation forms that inspire generosity and make giving easy for your supporters.
So grab that candy bar I mentioned and let’s go! Today, I’m sharing the best donation strategies for your nonprofit, from smart tiered giving and recurring donations to personal touches and donor tributes — all of it trauma-free in WPForms.
Use Tiered Giving to Guide Donors
One of the simplest and most effective ways to encourage donations is by offering suggested giving levels. Sometimes called tiered giving, this strategy shows supporters predefined donation amounts like:
- $10 — Provide school supplies for one child.
- $25 — Feed a family for a week.
- $50 — Support emergency shelter services.
Pre-setting these amounts eliminates some decision fatigue for your donors and makes your cause feel more tangible.
This is easy to do on your form with the Multiple Items field, so you can offer clear, compelling donation tiers right inside your forms.
You can even pair this with short descriptions to highlight the impact of each gift!
Want ideas for wording? Our suggested donation wording guide is a great place to start.
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Encourage Recurring Donations
A one-time gift is great and all, but recurring donations are essential for long-term sustainability. Giving your donors the option to contribute monthly builds reliable support for your mission and can increase overall giving amounts.
Just add a Checkbox or Dropdown field labeled something like “Make this a monthly donation” so donors can choose ongoing support with one click.
Then, when adding a payment gateway to your form, you can enable the recurring donations option directly in the form settings. Head over to the Payments tab within the form builder to open up the payment field options.
Highlight Impact With Goal Tracking
Donors love to see the difference they’re making. That’s why one powerful strategy is to share updates on fundraising goals, so your supporters know exactly how their gift moves the needle.
To do it, consider pairing your donation form with a progress bar on your website using a WordPress block or widget. As donations roll in, you can use your form entries data to manually update your progress bar. You could even ✨ automate it ✨ via Zapier and Google Sheets, or a custom shortcode to show real-time progress.
It creates urgency and encourages donors to join the community of supporters pushing your mission forward!
Read Also: How to Make a Donation Tracker in Google Sheets
Personalize with Conditional Logic
Let’s be real: not every supporter has the same motivation for giving.
So, you can create a more personal (and persuasive!) donation experience by using WPForms’ conditional logic to customize your form’s messaging based on user choices.
Just click on the Smart Logic tab of the field you want to customize.
For example, if someone selects “I’m donating in honor of someone,” your form can automatically reveal a field to collect that person’s name. Or you could offer different donation suggestions based on the donor’s relationship to your cause.
The more personal and relevant your form feels, the more likely supporters are to follow through.
Thank Donors Instantly
A great donation experience doesn’t end at the “Submit” button. Promptly thanking your donors helps build relationships and encourages future giving.
Head over to the Confirmations tab of your donation form settings to write a personalized thank-you to be displayed on the screen immediately after donation.
Additionally, you can set up automated email notifications to send a branded thank-you email (including a receipt!) right after the form is submitted.
Offer Tributes and Memorial Giving
Offering supporters the chance to donate “in honor of” or “in memory of” someone personalizes the giving experience and taps into deeper emotions. This is especially popular around holidays, birthdays, or remembrance events.
With our form builder, you can create a tribute section on your form — and even send a personalized acknowledgment email to the honoree or their family, all through the form Notifications settings.
Want to include tributes on your donation form? Add a multiple choice field and give it an appropriate label, such as asking “Is this gift in honor or memory of someone?”
Then use the conditional logic I told you about earlier to display additional fields (like honoree name, notification address, or a special message) when selected.
Bonus: Let AI Do the Work 😅
Not sure where to start with wording or design or… any of it? No worries! As my favorite home decor sign reads, “Give it to AI and go to sleep.” Or something like that.
In other words, WPForms AI can help.
Within the form builder, simply generate a nonprofit donation form based on a short prompt, like “Create a donation form for an animal rescue nonprofit.” You can then fine-tune it with all the strategies above.
It’s way faster and easier than starting from scratch! Sorry, I made you read all the way to bottom for me to tell you that.
And that’s it! You’re now ready to watch those donations skyrocket. What strategies will you use? Let us know in the comments!
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FAQ
“Just the FAQs, ma’am…” Looking for the important facts and highlights from this post? Browse our frequently asked questions about donation strategies:
What’s the best way to suggest donation amounts on my form?
Using tiered giving levels helps guide donors toward impactful amounts. You can add these using the Multiple Items field and customizing it to show what each donation level supports.
How can I make my donation form more engaging for supporters?
Add personal touches like Conditional Logic for tributes, embed impact statements with your donation levels, and use confirmation messages or email notifications to thank donors instantly. WPForms makes it easy to create a warm, meaningful donation experience.
Can WPForms handle recurring donations?
Yes! WPForms integrates with payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal to allow recurring donations. Just enable the recurring payment option when setting up your payment field, and supporters can choose ongoing gifts with a single click.
Next, Use These Pages for Inspiration
Now that you have some donation strategies in mind, it’s time to dress up that donation page! Take a look at the most inspiring examples from some of your favorite brands.
Ready to build your form? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. WPForms Pro includes lots of free templates and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.
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